ADVENT - “Rest for Our Souls”
Happy Monday, and welcome back to our Advent Meditation devotional series, where we're spending the days leading up to Christmas reflecting on Jesus Christ and the hope His arrival and eventual return brings us. This week, our time together will focus on the promises of Jesus and how they provide us with enduring hope, unshakable security, and a peace that passes all understanding. We start our exploration of these promises with an invitation from Jesus to rest; which is ironic on a Monday, at the beginning of a work week, smack dab in the middle of the holiday season. Yet, no matter what day, week, or month it might be, resting goes against our nature. We run at the speed of our expectations trying to prove and please. Many of us are weary from carrying a load we aren’t designed to bear, and in His grace, Jesus comes to us and meets us in our tired and worn-out state. With this in mind, before we begin, I want to provide space for you to merely just be still and silent - no agenda, no responsibilities, no demands, and no to-do list, other than to breathe and just be present.
Perfection pulls us while fear pushes us. We are driven by our fears more than our pursuits. We have this mindset: "If I can get this, or if I can achieve that, then my life will be perfect. Once this issue resolves itself or I get through this circumstance, then I'll finally be able to rest and experience this FULL life." We are chasing perfection with destination thinking, and it is driving us insane. We push and push and push, hoping that we can slow down, enjoy, and be satisfied once we achieve what we are pursuing. But, perfection and satisfaction never come, with contentment out of reach. So, we continue to press, pick up the pace, and try harder.
Knowing our propensity for pride, our need for control, and our tendency to look for life in all the wrong places, Jesus in Matthew 11 invites us to stop and rest, to slow down and breathe, and to quit relying on our strength and instead depend on His. Yet, Jesus takes it a step further by promising if we do, we will find the soul rest our hearts long for in Him - let’s read starting in verse 28:
28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
I don't know where those words find you right now. Maybe life is humming along just fine - you're living the life, living the dream. Perhaps you've been too busy to even pay attention to your surroundings. Or, perhaps spent and exhausted describe the current state of your life. Regardless, living in a broken world, we all encounter disappointment, struggles, adversity, and difficulty at one time or another.
And, often when those things come our way, we tend to rely on our will-power and strength to rise above them. We grin and bear it. We fake it until we make it. We don't let them see us cry. We pull ourselves up by the bootstraps and continue. We pretend like we're the little engine that could and continue to chug away at the problem. Inevitably, the engine loses steam, or the tank runs out of gas, and we grow tired and weary. We stumble and fall. We begin to lose hope and can't see beyond our present problems. With our eyes focused on our current circumstances, we fail to recognize the eternal purposes of Jesus’ invitation to find soul rest in Him.
Trying to hold things together in our strength allows our world to unravel. As long as we think we can do things on our own, God will let us continue to try. But, the reality is that apart from Him we can accomplish a whole helping of nothing. Today's promise provides hope for us who are weary, worn-out, and exhausted. Christ gives us rest. It might not feel like it but those moments where we slow down and refuel are divine opportunities to grow our faith and watch God at work. It reminds us that there is only one God and we’re not it. When we are weak God is strong. He provides relief for our frail and feeble legs. Security never comes through striving but submitting and letting go. We don't need more resiliency; we need to rest.
Transformation resides at the end of our self. If we wait on God to renew our strength, which He promises He will do, then we get to be strong. We move from a place of weariness into a position of strength. Running ourselves ragged might have us feeling "done,” but when we embrace His promise to rest and trust in Him, God reminds us that He's not done with us. When we live at our designed pace, we walk at the speed of trust that rests securely in the unforced rhythm of God's grace. We withdraw from the demands of our days, not just to relax, but to see and to trust. Jesus invites us to walk with Him under His direction and at His speed.
REFLECT
Before we wrap up our time together, we want to provide you some space to respond to what we read and maybe to what God is trying to say to you. First, take a moment to process this question…Where do you find yourself weary and tired? What are you trying to accomplish through your strength and ability?
Another question to consider is this…What would it look like for you to slow down and for your soul to find rest in Him?
PRAYER
Father God, even though chaos might reign, and busyness define my heart, allow me to set my eyes on You and find peace and comfort. Remind me that You have a higher plan for what I'm experiencing - one that involves transforming my heart into Your own and that begins when I stop pressing, and start pursuing You by accepting Your invitation to rest. In Your name, Jesus. Amen.